NEWS

Coughing and sniffling, Ayden Maher headed to the front of the Senate Chambers and addressed the Boca House of Representatives on Aug. 3.

In a nasally voice, he made a last plea for them not to override his veto. When he was done, the student body president proceeded to gather up his belongings and leave for a doctor’s appointment.

But his efforts were in vain. Soon after he left, his veto was overridden, allowing Student Government to ask students whether they support a university-wide smoking ban.

While the student opinion about a smoking ban will not make or break an actual policy, administration and Student Government are taking it very seriously.

The next student election will take place on Sept. 14 and 15 for each House of Representatives and the Senate. It will now include a student poll about the smoking ban. Boca Governor Allison Gentry wrote the bill that put the question on the ballot.

She felt that the students’ voice should be updated since the last smoking poll took place in spring 2009, when the majority of voters supported smoking zones.

“All that stuff was in favor of a smoke-free university, but students do graduate and new students come in,” she said, adding, “What does it hurt to get another poll of the students in the fall?”

According to Maher, it could hurt plenty.

“I feel that sometimes the way the questions are worded confines students’ choices and/or forces them to vote a certain way,” he said, adding that currently, administration does not have a student opinion to back its potential smoking ban.

And this, according to Gentry, who is in favor of a smoking ban, is exactly the idea behind the poll.

“If they’re moving forward with this type of policy right now, there’s nothing from the student’s point,” she said. “This would give them a chance to be heard.”

The Boca House of Representatives, which makes decisions regarding the Boca campus, agreed with Gentry and approved her bill.

House Representative Boris Bastidas voted for the bill because of the those it might affect.

“I think it’s a good idea to bring to students’ attention,” he said. “I don’t particularly like the idea of a smoking ban; I would rather have something that the students can decide on.”

Eighteen members of the House voted for the bill, and only one voted against.

Maher then vetoed the House bill, but it did not stop with him. The bill moved on to the Senate, which makes decisions that affect the entire university. As of press time, the Senate had not turned its decision in to Maher for consideration.

But at the House’s August 3 meeting, Maher’s veto was overturned.

When he was pleading his case, Maher said that, while only Boca students would answer the question on the poll, it would affect 8,000 students on other campuses.

“You’re polarizing the losing section. You’re creating divisions within your own student body,” said Maher. “And it should be you guys, the representative student leaders, who engage the administration on what we want to do about a smoking policy.”

Like before, only one representative agreed with Maher, which wasn’t enough. The House approved the poll question.

Later that day, Maher said, “[The poll] will become binding, most likely, and will be used as a mandate for the university to go ahead with the smoking ban.”

Boris Bastidas, a non-smoker, is against the idea of a ban because of its enforcement, though he was the first to motion to override the veto.

“I don’t like the fact that we’re going to put so much resources into a rule when the university hasn’t given us any indication of how they will enforce it,” he said.

Maher agrees with some of his sentiment.

“I don’t support smoking tobacco. It’s not a good habit; it’s not a healthy habit; it’s not an attractive habit,” he said, “But it is not the university’s job to police students whether they smoke tobacco or not.”

Regardless, a student vote will not decide on the matter. Instead, FAU’s safety committee — which includes students, faculty and staff — will decide, using the student vote as food for thought only. Rosemary Dunbar, director of Today and Beyond Wellness, will be part of the safety committee.

Discussing Dunbar’s perspective on the ban, Maher said,

“She doesn’t understand the externalities it creates. [Students] might not come to a tailgating event because they want to smoke a cigarette and know there will be cops there.”

Dunbar said “smokers have no rights” during the July 23 House meeting and maintains that smoking is not a right.

“Nationally, about 8 percent of college students smoke. The majority of students don’t want smoke in their environment,” she said. “You’re looking at a small group of students who are not protected by law; this is not a right for anyone to smoke.”

Whether there will be a smoking ban or how exactly it will be enforced is unknown. But, according to Dunbar, the policy will be structured by looking at the policies of over 100 universities nationwide.

UF, according to Dunbar, is a good example because its policy was just instated in July.

According to the UF smoking policy, which is available online (www.tobaccofree.ufl.edu), “Smoking and tobacco use are prohibited in all facilities and areas of the University of Florida campus with no exception.”

As for enforcement, the UF policy states that smokers “violating the policy should be reminded of the policy and asked to comply by discarding the tobacco product.”

According to Boris Bastidas, who is the chair of the House’s campus action committee, enforcement is a problem.

“One issue when you get into bans: basically, how do you enforce it?” he said. “If we don’t enforce it, there’s no point in my mind.”

Dunbar admits that the current policy on designated smoking zones, which lacks any type of enforcement, was not a success.

“What was thought from all of us is that ‘designated’ gets you ready. It’s a preliminary step to sensitize students to the dangers of second-hand smoke,” she said, adding about enforcement of a potential ban: “I would hope that students would be responsible enough that, if we educate them about the dangers — so many students truly don’t understand [the dangers] — we wouldn’t need enforcement.”

Although the poll hasn’t taken place yet, Dunbar said that July 1, 2011 has already been slated for a potential smoking ban start date.

“That would be our target. When the campus is a smaller population, get people used to it and when new students come, that would be part of orientation.” She said.

If the university did end up passing a smoking ban, Maher would “fight it,” he said.

“The next step is to engage administration directly,” he said. “I’d call Rosemary and [Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Charles] Brown. You go as far as you need to go. Like I said, I hate cigarettes, but it’s not my job to tell people if they can smoke them or not.”